A uniform resource locator (also known as Universal Resource Locator or URL), commonly known as a “web address,” is similar to a house number on a network and is the address of a standard resource on the Internet. It was initially invented as a World Wide Web address, and now it has already been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium as Internet standard RFC1738. In the history of the Internet, the invention of the URL was a very fundamental step. The syntax of a URL is general and expandable, and it uses a part of an ASCII code to represent an Internet address. The beginning portion of a URL generally indicates a network protocol used by a computer network that the URL refers to.
When using a browser to browse a web page, a user generally inputs a URL in the web address bar and then arrives at the web page to be visited. There are generally two ways of inputting a URL. One is to input the URL characters one by one, and the other is to copy and paste the URL from somewhere outside of the web address bar of the browser, i.e. the URL characters are first copied, and then pasted in the web address bar.
With regard to a browser on an ordinary personal computer (i.e., PC), there is nothing wrong or inconvenient in using the aforementioned methods of inputting a URL. However, with regard to a browser on an intelligent terminal such as a cell phone, it is may be inconvenient for a user to first copy a URL, and then past the URL in the address bar of the browser.